18-year-old Stathis Manolopoulos in the Under 19 category and 13-year-old Yiannis Kioseloglou in the Under 15 category managed to get through to the “knock outs” of the World Table Tennis Youth Contender of Sobatelli. They advanced with second place from their groups and on Saturday, in the final day of the boys’ games, they will be looking for the best possible placement in the “64” table.
Friday’s program also included the qualifying process in the U11 category, where only Dimitris-Marios Alexandridis competed. Regardless of his disqualification, the boy from Athens added another victory to his credit, while Giannis Anastasiadis, Giannis Koutras and Giorgos Katsaprakakis were also sidelined in the U19, however, a very good effort was again made by everyone in tournaments with high competition and excellent level of competition.
In the coaching of four athletes, namely Koutras, Kioseloglou, Anastasiadis and Alexandridis, is the coach of Poseidon Loutrakiou, Christos Tsarsitalides.
From Sunday, the girls start, with Malamatenia Papadimitriou having another participation in Youth Contender towards the end of her presence as a youth.
In the Under 19 category of athletes, 31 groups were formed. Manolopoulos was in the 29th group and achieved his goal with 1 win and 1 loss. First, he lost to the Slovenian leader, Bryn Vovk, in 3-0 sets (8-11, 7-11, 10-12).
In the decisive match of the third round, however, he overcame the Polish Patrick Zivoronek with 3-0 sets (11-8, 11-9, 11-6).
In the first round, the 2022 Greek junior singles champion was drawn with Poland’s Michal Gavlas.
Koutra was in the 16th group. In his first match he was defeated by the German Wim Verdonschot (head) with 3-0 sets (8-11, 10-12, 4-11) and in the second narrowly by the Englishman Larry Trubasuskas to stay in third place. He led with 2-1 sets, but “bent” with 3-2 (5-11, 11-9, 11-7, 7-11, 7-11).
Anastasiadis competed in the 24th group. First he lost 3-0 sets to the strong Bulgarian Ioan Velitskov, who was also admired by Greek fans at last summer’s Balkan Championship (5-11, 5-1, 4-11) and then to Slovakian Damian Floro with the same score (1-11, 4-11, 7-11).
Katsaprakakis claimed qualification to the 28th group. In the premiere he lost to the leader of Luxembourg, Mael Van Dyssel, with 3-1 sets (11-9, 2-11, 6-11, 6-11) and in the last match against the Romanian Horia Stefan Ursut, also with 3-1 ( 5-11, 11-6, 4-11, 9-11).
On Friday, the Under 15 category took place, also with a large participation and a total of 32 groups. Kioseloglou participated in the 16th group and qualified with 1 win and 1 loss.
In his first match he was defeated by Lee Ellsworth from Singapore (head) in 3-0 sets (7-11, 9-11, 7-11), but he was fully prepared in the decisive match against Ukrainian Nikita Koftun for to win 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-8).
The drawing of the tableau brought a Pole to his own path. In the “64”, he faces Jan Mrugala on Saturday.
In the Under 11 category, Alexandridis competed in the first group, which was of five athletes, he was eliminated with the fourth place, but it is essential that he gave several competitive tests again, as yesterday in a corresponding group of Under 13s.
In the first match he lost to the Austrian Benjamin Bian with 3-0 sets (5-11, 8-11, 5-11) and in the second to the first favorite of the match, the Spaniard Alexander Malof, also with 3-0 (5 -11, 5-11, 4-11). Then, he fought back with a 3-1 set from the Polish Olaf Glaner (7-11, 7-11, 11-9, 8-11) and ended with a positive result, as he overcame the Hungarian Balid Gilis ( 9-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-6).
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